Fundraiser for reunited Congolese mom and child — ‘We can help them get a start’

GoFundMe

A GoFundMe page seeks support for a Congolese woman and her daughter who are seeking asylum and staying at a Chicago-area shelter. They have been reunited after immigration officials had separated and detained them when they entered the U.S.

A GoFundMe page seeks support for a Congolese woman and her daughter who are seeking asylum and staying at a Chicago-area shelter. They have been reunited after immigration officials had separated and detained them when they entered the U.S. (GoFundMe)

A scrappy youth football team on the West Side couldn’t afford to send its kids to a jamboree in a neighboring state. People stepped in and made it happen.

A family’s house burned down before Christmas. People jumped up to help, offering everything from a place to live to new gifts for the kids.

Most recently, a child from Congo was separated from her mother and detained here in Chicago. After I first wrote about the 7-year-old — identified only as S.S. — my email inbox filled up with notes from readers asking how they could help. People offered their homes to the girl and her mother. They wanted to donate time, money, translation services and all manner of moral support.

But there was nothing outsiders could do at that point. Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union were working to reunite the child with her mother, who was being held at a government detention facility in San Diego. The child was under federal care here.

The two never should have been separated. They came to America seeking asylum. The mother — who we know only as Ms. L. — believed she faced imminent death. A Catholic church helped her and her daughter out of the country.

When they arrived at a port of entry in southern California in November, Ms. L. turned herself in to border agents and said she was seeking asylum. She passed an initial screening, indicating she has a strong case, but several days later, immigration officers separated her from her daughter.

The child was transported to a detention facility for unaccompanied minors here in Chicago. The mother remained in California. No explanation was given and the two were only allowed to speak by phone a handful of times.

Ms. L. followed all the rules an asylum-seeker is supposed to follow. The separation was unnecessary and, based on the Department of Homeland Security’s consistent refusal to comment on the situation, I believe they were split apart because the government is trying to use family separation as a means of deterring others from seeking asylum.

Fortunately, under pressure from the ACLU, this newspaper and other media outlets, the mother was released, and she and the little girl have been reunited. They’re together at a Chicago-area shelter that houses asylum-seekers. They’re being cared for, physically and mentally, and they are awaiting a hearing on their asylum case.

And now a Chicago mother who was moved by the case — a mother who herself has been bolstered by people in this city — has launched a GoFundMe page to raise money to help Ms. L. and her daughter.

Anna Herbst / CURE

Miguel and Kelly Cervantes with their children Adelaide and Jackson. Kelly Cervantes says she felt welcomed when she came to Chicago and has set up the GoFundMe page for the Congolese mother and daughter.

Miguel and Kelly Cervantes with their children Adelaide and Jackson. Kelly Cervantes says she felt welcomed when she came to Chicago and has set up the GoFundMe page for the Congolese mother and daughter. (Anna Herbst / CURE)

Kelly Cervantes has a 2-year-old daughter, Adelaide, who has childhood epilepsy. You may have read about Adelaide and her parents. They moved here in 2016 when Cervantes’ husband, Miguel Cervantes, was cast as the lead in the Chicago production of “Hamilton.”

Kelly cares for Adelaide full time and the couple has been active in raising awareness of childhood epilepsy and supporting a Chicago-based group called CURE, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy.

She told me about arriving in Chicago with a daughter who requires round-the-clock care: “We felt so welcomed when we came here. Everything that happened with her since we moved here, the community here has rallied around us.”

So when she read about Ms. L. and her daughter, she felt a connection.

“I think maybe that’s why this family’s story struck me so much,” Kelly Cervantes said. “We were a family in need and this city rallied around us, and this woman and her daughter are in need. This city is so family focused and family friendly, and if enough people come together, we can help them get a start.”

As an executive committee member of the Illinois ACLU’s Next Generation Society, Cervantes was able to gather information and coordinate with the Congolese mother’s immigration attorney. As it says on the GoFundMe page, money raised will allow the mother and daughter to “begin setting up a new life in the United States.”

“It was a matter of crossing t’s and dotting i’s and making sure we’re not doing anything that could hurt her legal case,” Kelly Cervantes said. “Obviously we wanted them to be reunited. Now they’re reunited, but they’re still not OK.”

I’ve seen the kindness of the people of this city, time and time again. Kelly and her family saw it when they came here a couple of years back.

And something tells me we’ll all see it again thanks to Cervantes’ initiative. If you want to help out Ms. L. and her daughter, a mother and child our government needlessly split apart for four grueling months, please visit the GoFundMe page at: www.gofundme.com/MsLNeedsOurHelp.